Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (1871-1945) was born in Indiana. He had various occupations before he started working as a journalist and, later, as a novelist.
"[H]is first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), [is] a powerful account of a young working girl's rise to the 'tinsel and shine' of worldly success, and of the slow decline of her lover and protector Hurstwood. It was withheld from circulation by its publishers, who were apprehensive about Dreiser's frank and amoral treatment of Carrie's sexuality and ambition (...) Jennie Gerhardt (1911) again [is] a novel of a working girl's betterment through liaisons. This was followed by the first parts of a trilogy about an unscrupulous business magnate, Frank Cowperwood (The Financier, 1912; The Titan; 1914; The Stoic was published posthumously in 1947). The Genius (1915) is a study of an artist, with much autobiographical material. An American Tragedy (1925) is the story of Clyde Griffiths, son of unworldly, evangelist parents, who escapes from them to what seems to him the vastly more exciting and colourful life of a bell-boy in a Kansas City hotel; he moves to New York state to work in a collar factory, and when his girl friend Roberta becomes pregnant he drowns her, possibly accidentally in the event, though after much anguished premeditation, and is tried and condemned to death. Dreiser's many other works include Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928, written after travels in Russia), Tragic America (1931), and America is worth Saving (1941), which express the growing faith in socialism that replaced the nihilistic naturalism and pessimism of his earlier work. Dreiser has frequently been described as a clumsy stylist, with a weak sense of structure; even his supporter and friend H.L. Mencken thought Sister Carrie a poorly balanced narrative, but the power, originality, first-hand observations, and moral independence of his work has ensured him a lasting readership and a serious reputation as an artist." (Oxford Companion to English Literature, p. 296)
Sister Carrie
This novel was turned into a hollywood film starring Laurence Olivier and Jennifer O'Neill. Watch this space!
Abb. NN: Sister Carrie, NTSC-Video
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